MORENO: Wine connoisseurs will be happy to know a new gadget will allow them to turn water into wine. Literally ...

— You Tube, Newsy, 9th March, 2014

The Miracle Machine was not an April Fool’s Day prank, but as with so many things that sound too good to be true, it was indeed a fantasy.

Turns out, such ideas are best left to the pages of The Bible when Jesus managed to do it with just the wave of his hand.

— Mail Online, 15th March, 2014

But this hugely successful stunt was all in a good cause, because it rounded up thousands of readers and delivered them to a charity website, called Wine to Water, where they were given much better and more important news.

KEVIN BOYER: The reality is the Miracle Machine does not exist. This is just a lump of wood.

PHILLIP JAMES: But there is a miracle I want to talk to you about today. While we can’t turn water into wine, we can turn wine into water. And the global water crisis is one of the biggest issues facing this planet today.

— Vimeo, The Miracle Machine, March, 2014

The motives behind stunts like that, which are becoming more and more common, are rarely so altruistic.

But here’s another miracle moment that captured far more true believers.

GRAPHIC: We asked 20 strangers to kiss for the first time...

PERSON 1: Can you turn off the lights? Come on.

PERSON 2: Justin.

PERSON 3: Elisabetha. Nice to meet you.

PERSON 2: Shall we make out?

PERSON 3: Absolutely.

PERSON 4: Just here is the awkward moment.

PERSON 5: Since you’re an actress, you’ve done this before.

PERSON 6: A little bit, a little bit.

— You Tube, First Kiss, 10th March, 2014

Yes, I know you wanted more.

And so did romantics all around the world, who helped that video go viral.

But, cute and awkward as it seemed, that 3 minute film First Kiss, which has now been viewed 80 million times online, was also just an ad.

The kissers were actors, models and musicians, and the client a US clothing brand, which then got a second wave of coverage when the truth was revealed.

Be warned: as the push toward native ads gains steam, the already murky distinctions between ads and non-ads will only get murkier. Not long from now, most of the paid messages you encounter online will be dressed up as unpaid messages, and figuring out which is which will be an ever more difficult task.

— Wall Street Journal, 20th November, 2013

Despite such warnings, native ads are the New Big Thing, especially in the United States, where the Washington Post, New York Times, Huffington Post, Forbes, Time, Yahoo and The Atlantic have all taken the plunge.

Most of them argue they have little choice, but US media critic Bob Garfield says journalism is selling its soul ... and it’s getting peanuts in return.

Writing in the Guardian , the host of NPR’s On The Media joked that native ads are a Faustian pact that not even Faust would sign.

Selling its soul buys a sinking newspaper precious little time.

That's why the Faust of the joke declines to participate. He knows that if he's going to barter his dignity, reputation and trust, there better be more in it for him than a few coins to stuff his purse.

The driving force behind this unparalleled era of growth is David Miscavige, ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion. Mr. Miscavige is unrelenting in his work for millions of parishioners ...

— The Atlantic, 14th January, 2013

That shameless puff for an outfit The Atlantic would normally be tearing apart brought howls of protest and an almost instant apology, with the magazine admitting :

We screwed up. It shouldn't have taken a wave of constructive criticism — but it has — to alert us that we've made a mistake, possibly several mistakes. We now realize that as we explored new forms of digital advertising, we failed to update the policies that must govern the decisions we make along the way.

— The Atlantic, Statement, 15th January, 2013

There are some ads you just shouldn’t take.

And there are far more you should never dress up as news.

But even Britain’s public broadcaster, the BBC, is now risking its reputation by doing just that.

The BBC has long had a separate commercial arm, funded by ads, called BBC Worldwide.

Luckily, there are literally thousands of journalists in Australia who have recently been released from the ethical shackles of major media companies where the gulf between advertising and editorial necessarily runs deep.

If brands can harness the creative power of credible, authoritative storytellers ...

they might just deliver better journalism than publishers themselves.

— Mumbrella, 12th February, 2014

This idea of brands delivering better journalism is echoed by one of Australia’s biggest banks, the ANZ, which last week launched its own online news site Blue Notes.

YOUR COMMENTS

Comments (14)

Doomsday Chook :

25 Apr 2014 7:22:44pm

The big problem that the ruling capitalist overclass has is that sections of the public are wakening from their consumerist stupefaction, and noticing that all is not going well in our 'Free Market' Paradise. Those of above median intelligence will have noted the rapid growth in greenhouse pollution, and be able to recall and understand the physics that they were taught in high school, and know that is very bad news indeed. Those with some regard for the fate of their children are becoming rather agitated by the capitalists' refusal to do anything to avert a climate destabilisation Holocaust of unimaginable horror. Others will also have noted growing inequality, growing elite rapacity, growing US Empire aggression, and growing lying and misinformation in the MSM. So, with the possibility of revolt growing by the day, the elite must rely on yet more intensive brainwashing. Not only are the MSM careering further and further Right and into total uniformity of opinion over crises like Syria, Ukraine, climate destabilisation etc, but new avenues of indoctrination are required. And the neutering of the last source of real facts, the Internet, comes next.

Ex-PR person :

25 Apr 2014 12:32:10pm

News is news - advertising is advertising. They should be kept separate simple as that - this coming from someone that made a living off PR for over a decade.

However - the vast majority of newspapers and sites are filled with 'human interest' stories that, let's be honest, no one really cares where it's sourced from, but if it's paid for it should be labeled as such.

But seriously all you haters I the ABC, get over yourselves, the ABC exists for a reason and as they speak the truth, they aren't going to necessarily please YOU. They're impartial, they call it as they see it - warts and all. If they didn't we'd end up with a puppet for the leading political party spouting party rhetoric - North Korea anyone?

Begging :

24 Apr 2014 12:45:38pm

It's all very well to denounce such developments but is it ethical that large numbers of experienced freelance/specialist journalists are working unpaid in the current technological and recessionary environment even for big papers - or being scrap-heaped? It's EXTREMELY stressful not being able to feed yourself, while needing to pay service providers to stay visible/connected. Tip for my brothers & sisters: drinking cheap coffee all day holds off hunger pangs. Anything that makes journalism/media more viable is welcome at this stage. Well remunerated ABC types and media professors are privileged enough to be able to question it. There's a collective denial about the state of the media.

Doomsday Chook :

25 Apr 2014 7:12:06pm

The jettisoning of so many MSM apparatchiki no doubt has a salutary effect on the political correctness of those spared to knout. No doubt ideological adherence to Don Ruperto's line (the line of the plutocratic oligarchy)will save a presstitute's career, for a while.

Concerned from Mercury :

23 Apr 2014 9:04:14pm

What do you suppose explains the negative comments on videos like these? Does Newscorp pay people to post them on every video, or are they designed just to get a rise out of the Media Watch faithful? As this video has nothing to do with Newscorp or suggest any sort of left-wing bias, they couldn't be honest opinions, surely?

Gerhardt Meurer :

Mark :

22 Apr 2014 9:43:46pm

Hi PK, I think it is safe to say Ian forest didn't watch the show. Judging by the negativity of his comment I'm likely to think his a right winged troll, the negativity is the give away. It is sad as Media Watch is about truthfulness in the media and some people would rather not have truthfulness. This episode was about the future of the media, so he should have watched it.

PK :

Bingo :

23 Apr 2014 4:04:13pm

The difference is you can choose not to pay for Newscorp publications (even though some of them are much better than the hype would have you believe). The ABC is an obligatory drain on public resources, and Media Watch is one of the most telling examples of the unacceptable bias in its soul. Australian citizens have not only a right, but also a duty, to keep tabs on this stuff and call it out for what it is.